This is a blog set up by Eli Fuller (me) to help keep readers informed and to promote our little country to prospective guests. It's also to make sure that new info about our island is passed on quickly and also to receive feedback on this info. Of course most of the things i write about have themes of ecology and usually have quite a bit to do with my company Adventure Antigua. Make comments anytime you want, but check the site above to book your adventure.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Work on our second yacht starts again.

Many of you know if you have been following this blog for a year or longer that back in November 07 we decided to commission the construction of a Carriacou Sloop. We at Adventure Antigua made this decision for a number of reasons which included the following.1- to diversify away from higher "footprint" type tours.2- to maintain return clients' interest in our company.3- to keep ourselves interested and motivated.4- to offer guests something new and not done in Antigua.5- to have another area of recreation when there are no tours.6- to get back into sailing and racing on days off.

The list of reasons we decided to get a Caribbean wooden sailing vessel goes on and on. It had to be different though and getting a sailing vessel which was not just the typical fiberglass (plastic) boat that you see commonly these days was critical. They are fun too, but a traditionally built wooden boat had, history, life and character even before you put crew on board.I have written so much about Carriacou Sloops on this blog and you can use the little box above to find out more.I paid our first deposit to Alwyn Enoe back in November last year and shortly afterwards he made a model according to what we had agreed would be the perfect boat for my needs. After this was done he and his sons went into the "bush" as they call the Grenada jungle to select several white cedar trees which they would use to make the skeleton of the new sloop. By mid February they were cutting and shaping the timbers on their home island of Carriacou. Very shortly after that i was contacted by the owner of a boat who had started and stopped building another boat down the beach. He made a deal with me to take over the building of his boat and work immediately stopped on my boat so that we could have Ocean Nomad ready to sail in time for the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta in mid April. It was a mad rush and the slide show here shows some of that work. Since that regatta in April we have been doing work on Ocean Nomad to get her ready enough to do charters and tours here in Antigua. We are pretty much finished finally. This summer work started back up on my original boat and once the bronze fastenings (nails, nuts, washers and bolts) had arrived the frames were attached to the greenheart keel. My good friend Alexis Andrews who did the fantastic two volume book Carriacou Sloops took some video last week of the boat as you can now call her on the beach in Carriacou. You can see his video at the end of this presentation: